Kill or Be Killed
by Rowvle
Summary: Shuttlepod One is shot down on a hostile alien planet. Trip, Malcolm, Travis and Hoshi have to escape but have lost all contact with Enterprise. "Every planet needs their slaves, wouldn't you agree?"
1. Routine Mission

_Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek, though I wish I did._

_I watched the remake of Poseidon tonight and it sort of inspired me to write this. I was just thinking about Malcolm's reaction to the film while I was watching and it made me laugh. So, I thought I'd torture him with water XD_

_This is my first ever Enterprise fanfiction, so tell me what you think :D_

_Also, it's quarter to five in the morning here in England, I neeed sleeeeeeep._

_-.-.-.-.-.-._

"You understand what you're supposed to do, right?" Captain Archer addressed the query to the four people in question.

"Aye aye sir," Tucker replied "Deliver the goods, trade with the aliens and get out of there."

"In one piece I might add," Malcolm interjected "This species is renowned for its violence and hostility towards other races. We should be armed to the teeth, instead we fly out in a shuttle pod with nothing but phase pistols."

Archer cocked an eyebrow "Well, Ensign Sato should be able to keep their anger at bay with her translation skills."

"Quite," Malcolm interrupted again "At least we'll be able to know what they're saying when they attack us."

"Always the pessimist," Trip clapped Mal on the back, perhaps a bit too forcefully as Malcolm stumbled forwards slightly.

"Now Ensign Mayweather has been studying the maps carefully-"

"I know my way around that planet like the back of my hand Captain," Travis smiled.

"Safe journey, and I'll see you when you get back," Archer smiled, opening the door to his quarters and letting the four crewmen passed.

It was a routine mission, trading goods which would help Enterprise and the alien race with repairs it shouldn't have taken longer than an hour or two, which is what Captain Archer had told them. Yes, the species was hostile but they hadn't had too much trouble with hostile species in the past, besides, all they were doing was trading goods. What harm would that do? It wasn't as if they were offended by the slightest thing, such as eating in public, as the Kreetassan's were.

Trip, Malcolm, Hoshi and Travis climbed into Shuttlepod One. It was slightly cramped with four of them in there, but it wasn't going to be for long. Enterprise was in orbit above the alien planet, so they would be able to land on the alien planet and leave the confines of the shuttlepod in no time. Travis clicked a few switches and sat down at the helm, the familiar sound of the engine whirring to life filled their ears. Malcolm was in the small store room filled with provisions at the back of the shuttlepod, checking the amount of food and water that was there.

"Relax, would you Malcolm? You're makin' me feel nervous," Trip told him in his relaxed Southern drawl.

"I'm just checking that we have the right amount of water and food for the four of us, in case of an emergency," Malcolm responded "Luckily we have."

"You worry too much Malcolm," Hoshi agreed with Trip "Sit down, enjoy the ride."

"That's an order," Trip smiled at the agitated look on Malcolm's face.

Travis took the controls and the shuttlepod left Enterprise and entered into the stars. The views could have been described as breathtaking, if the crew hadn't gotten so used to them. Every day they would look out of their windows and see the black sheet of space and stars. When they eventually went home, back to earth, they would find it odd to see the sun rise every morning and set every night. They were now so used to the dark beauty and endlessness of space.

The planet was steadily arriving closer to them in the window of the shuttlepod. It was mostly a dense forested planet, but trees had been cut down in many places in order for civilisations to grow. A lot of the forest had remained intact, despite the growing population. The shuttlepod shook slightly as they entered the planet's atmosphere, but that was all normal and routine, nothing to be worried about.

The shuttlepod was suddenly violently jerked to one side, causing Trip, Malcolm and Hoshi to fall from their seats to the metal floor. That was something to be worried about.

"What was that Travis?" Trip asked, getting up from the floor and looking out towards the planet.

"I'm not sure," Travis flipped a few switched before being violently jerked again "They're shooting at us! I can't believe this, don't they know that we're coming?"

"Can you get a com signal?" Trip questioned Travis, leaning over him to get a good look.

"Negative," was Travis' reply "That last shot fried our communications. We can't contact them or Enterprise!"

"What did I say about emergencies?" Malcolm raised an eyebrow "You can never be too careful with alien races we have barely met."

A direct hit. The four of them were thrust aside. Travis looked to the damage report briefly and tried to turn the shuttlepod around and out of the alien planet.

"Thrusters are down!" Travis was pulling the shuttlepod controls this way and that, but the shuttlepod wasn't responding "We're freefalling! There's nothing I can do!"

The four of them were now looking out of the window. The biggest expanse of blue that they had ever seen was now filling it. Gallons of churning harsh waters were filling their eyes. They watched helplessly as the tremendous ocean came closer and closer, knowing that they were unable to do anything about it. They couldn't even contact Enterprise or send a distress signal.

"Brace for impact!" Trip cried, the four of them scrambled over to the seats and grabbed onto anything that was nailed down.

Shuttlepod One hit the water hard. Their heads snapped back with the force of the impact, Hoshi banging her head hard off the back wall. Dazed for a moment she let go of the rail she was holding onto and Travis had to grab her fast to stop her from falling over. The shuttlepod descended with great ease into the murky depths, until it settled softly onto the sand at the bottom. The water wasn't as deep as they had first suspected, but it was still pretty deep. The four of them, as if they had all been holding their breaths at the same time, let out a brief sigh of relief, thankful that they landed in the sea. If they had crash landed onto the earth at the speed they were going, they may not all have survived. Well, everybody apart from Malcolm Reed was thankful that they landed in the sea, he would have rather crashed into an erupting volcano than this.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..

"How're they doing?" Archer directed this question at T'pol who was in her usual spot on the bridge.

"Fine," she replied in her emotionless voice "They've landed safely on the planet. They should commence trading soon."

"Good," Archer smiled, and sat back in his chair

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-..-.

The shuttlepod went dark for a few moments until emergency power kicked in. The four of them tried to get their bearings, Hoshi rubbing her head where she'd hit it. Malcolm got up from the floor, bleary eyed and rubbing a bump on his head also.

"Everybody okay?" Trip was the first to speak, the concern for his friends plastered across his face.

"I cracked my head," Hoshi replied, removing her hand from the back of her head to see that her fingertips were red with her blood "I'll be fine."

"Malcolm, get the First Aid kit, we have to get that sorted out," Trip sat down next to Hoshi and inspected the back of her head "I'm no doctor, but it doesn't look too bad to me. Better to make sure though."

Trip took the kit from Malcolm and sprayed the gash on her head with antiseptic. Hoshi winced, she had never been too good around blood, or pain for that matter. She remembered falling off her bike when she was eight and badly grazing both knees. She never went back on a bike again after that.

"That should do it," Trip cleaned away all of the blood that he could and set the med kit down on the floor.

"Why do you think they shot at us?" Travis asked "I thought they wanted our trade?"

"Obviously not," Trip answered "Lulled us into a false sense of security. Maybe they get their kicks from preying on friendly races.

Malcolm, who had not spoken since they landed spoke up, his voice sounding smaller than he had hoped "How are we going to get out of this?"

"We've just got to get back to the surface and hope that Enterprise has realised that we've been fired upon."

"And how do you propose we get up to the surface?" Malcolm enquired, looking at Trip dead in the eyes.

"We swim," Trip responded, and seeing Mal's face change suddenly to a rather worried expression, he realised what the answer meant to him "You don't like water, do you?"

"Never been fond of it no," was Mal's short reply.

"Well, it's either swimming or suffocating," Hoshi told him, she thought she heard him mumble 'I'd rather suffocate' but she couldn't be sure.

"Is there any other way?" Malcolm tried to sound as unconcerned as he could, but was failing miserably.

"'fraid not," Trip shrugged, Malcolm practically reeled "If there were somethin' else, I'd tell you. But there ain't. Sorry."

"Just leave me in here to die from loss of air then," Malcolm said grimly.

"Hey, Malcolm. Ain't suffocating sort of the same as drowning? Trying to breathe but not being able to get a breath-"

"Are you playing on my fears!" Malcolm spat "I don't want to be reminded about how somebody drowns thank you Commander Tucker!"

"Calm down Malcolm!" Hoshi interjected "Trip was just trying to help in his own little...strange way."

"Well I don't need your help!" Malcolm had briefly turned his fear to rage, after this short outburst fear washed over to him again and he lapsed into a silence.

The sound of the shuttlepod creaking from the motions of the water was all around them. It was never truly silent. Travis stood and started towards the helm. He pushed a few buttons, flicked a few switches. Nothing. There was no way the shuttlepod would be getting back out of the water without help. Hoshi found watching the water through the window quite soothing and it calmed her nerves. Malcolm found the water quite sickening looking and had turned so his back was facing away from the window. Trip looked out of the window and upwards, his forehead pushing against the reinforced glass. He could see the sun's rays coming through the water. It wouldn't take more than a minute or two to swim up to the surface, as long as everybody took a large enough gulp of air, they'd be fine. Malcolm was feeling woozy, his entire body was shaking and his skin had turned a pale shade, almost white. He had his head down, looking through his knees and onto the metal floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. He was trying his hardest to get his mind off the fact that they only had one way out of the shuttlepod and that included holding your breath and swimming through a tremendous amount of water to get to the surface. He had to try not to think about the inevitable, so he kept his eyes focused on the metal floor. Water. Water. Water, water, water water water water . He could not get it out of his head. He couldn't take his mind off it. His stomach tightened and he suddenly felt violently ill. Him, Malcolm Reed, would have to get out of the shuttlepod and _swim_ to the surface. He could barely brave the shallow end of a swimming pool, never mind the vastness of this ocean spread out towards him. He closed his eyes to try and stop thinking altogether, but that one word remained, floating around in his skull, teasing him. Besides Malcolm didn't even know _how_ to swim. The situation unravelling before him wasn't looking good.

Minutes had passed without a word being said before Hoshi spoke up "The sooner we get up to the surface the sooner we find a way to contact Enterprise."

"She's right," Trip replied, standing up and addressing the three "We have to head out."

"Leave me here," Malcolm said weakly "If the three of you go up and get word to Enterprise you can tell them that I'm stuck in a shuttlepod in the bottom of an ocean."

"Who's in?" Hoshi and Travis raised their hands, Malcolm groaned "Sorry, not possible. If the three of us go out, we'll have to open the door. That'll mean that all of the water from outside will come crashing inside. The shuttlepod would fill with water and you would drown. Is that really what you want?"

Malcolm shook his head.

"Good, that's settled," Trip cracked his knuckles "Anyway, it's not much water. It won't be that bad."

Hoshi and Travis readied themselves in front of the opening hatch, Trip behind them. Malcolm slowly stood and made his way over to them. He was shaking so much that his legs were wobbly and he had to try and stop himself from falling over. He crouched down next to Trip and swallowed hard.

"Hang on," Malcolm's voice was barely audible, he cleared his throat "Give me a moment to compose myself."

Malcolm was still shaking. He didn't want to embarrass himself in front of his friends, but he couldn't help it. He brought his knees up beneath his chin and began to rock back and forth without realising at first. Trip put a hand on Mal's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Just take a deep breath and don't think about it," Trip said.

"Easy for you to say," Malcolm whispered.

Travis had his hand on the release for the door. Malcolm was practically hyperventilating. He shut his eyes tight and bit his bottom lip, almost chewing a hole through it. His heart was pounding, fit to burst against his ribcage. The only sound he could hear was the beating of his heart and the circulating of blood ring in his ears.

"Go," everyone stopped and looked at him "Go now before I change my mind."

Travis looked from Malcolm, to the door and back again. Malcolm opened his eyes.

"NOW!"

The door was opened, and all hell broke loose.


	2. Drowning Lessons

_Well, I'm back :P.  
To the anonymous reviewer who got the first review (woo! First one !), I know exactly how you feel XD. I also suffer from aquaphobia so writing this gave me the heebigeebies XD  
Hope you enjoy this chapter, reviews are LOVE ! :D_

_-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-_

Torrents of water crashed through into the shuttlepod, instantly pinning them to the back wall. Travis was at the front, so the water instantly winded him. Using all of his strength he took the biggest gulp of air he could from the rapidly decreasing area on the ceiling of the shuttlepod that still contained some air. Hoshi was out first, but Travis, being a strong swimmer, overtook her quickly. The next out of the water filled shuttlepod was Trip, kicking as hard as he could to get to the top quickly before he had to take a breath. Malcolm had panicked as soon as the water entered the shuttlepod and had not taken as big a breath as he should have. He tried as quick as he could to get out of the shuttlepod, but unfortunately in his blind panic, his clothing snagged on the top of the shuttlepod door. Panicking, he tried to rip free, but it was no use. His chest felt tight and he knew that he would have to take a breath in the next few seconds or he'd slip out of consciousness.

Trip had a feeling that something was wrong. He turned his head to look back at the shuttlepod, only to see Malcolm struggling to escape. He turned himself in the calming waters and swam back to help his friend. Grabbing Malcolm's arms and pulling him forwards, Trip was able to free his friend from the shuttlepod and pull him out. But Malcolm had already panicked too much and had inhaled water into his lungs instead of air. Trip swam as hard as he could to swim to the surface before his breath ran out and he would be unconscious, just like Malcolm.

Travis was out of the water first, he took a gulp of air and dived back in to help Hoshi out. He took her hand and swam with her up to the surface. When the two of them got to the shore, Hoshi sat panting for a while before Travis spoke.

"Where's Trip?" he asked Hoshi, his eyes scanning the water "And Malcolm?"

"Trip was right behind me," Hoshi told him, her eyes also on the water "I don't know about Malcolm, right behind him I'd suppose."

Travis dived back in to the water, to see if the two of them were alright. They'd been in the water long enough and Travis wondered if something was wrong. When he got into the water, he found Trip trying his hardest to get to the surface, but was failing to go very fast as he was holding on to an unconscious Malcolm. Travis took the unconscious Malcolm from him and the two of them broke the surface. Trip took in lungfuls of cool fresh air. The air felt sharp entering his lungs as he hadn't taken a breath for a while and while swimming, could feel his own need for oxygen. If he hadn't gotten out of the water sooner...well, there'd be two unconscious crewmen to deal with, and not just the one.

It wasn't looking good. Malcolm had stopped breathing. Trip pulled himself painfully up on the shore while Travis was attempting to resuscitate him. Travis tried giving Malcolm air, but it was no use. Instead he was pushing hard on his chest, trying to jumpstart his heart. They'd left all of the medical equipment on the shuttlepod, so they'd have to try and revive him the old fashioned way.

Finally, after what seemed like hours but what had only really been a couple of agonising seconds, Malcolm was coughing up water and had begun to breathe again. The three of them all breathed out heavy sighs of relief. He was still unconscious, but at least now he was breathing.

"I'm gonna go back in," Trip spoke up "T'see if I can salvage anythin'."

"Be careful," Hoshi told him "Don't be too long."

"Don', worry. I won' be," Trip replied, and went off, back down into the murky water.

He swam fast downwards, trying to get there with plenty of time to spare before he needed to go back up for air, as he'd have to look around the shuttlepod and that would take some time. The first thing that he grabbed was the med kit, after that he didn't see anything else worth salvaging. Then he remembered the food and water in the back of the shuttlepod. He prised the door open and peered inside. It was pointless taking the food, the water would have gotten to them already, so instead, he grabbed as much bottles of water that he could carry and made his way back to the surface as he knew he could not hold his breath for much longer.

He got to the shore and threw the bottles of water and the med kit on the ground, he then sat down on the sand exhausted.

"'s Malcolm gonna be okay?" he asked Travis.

"I think so," he replied "I'm not a doctor, but from where I'm standing, I think he'll be okay. I mean, he didn't hit his head or anything, just inhaled water."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It was starting to get dark, the three of them decided to venture into the forest and sat up camp there. They'd placed Malcolm on the leafy ground, but he still didn't show any signs of waking up. Travis had managed to get a fire started but there was still nothing for them to eat.

"You don't suppose they have frogs of lizards on this planet, do you?" Travis asked, his stomach growling with hunger.

"Eugh," Hoshi pulled a disgusted face "I don't think I'm hungry enough to start eating amphibians and reptiles thank you very much."

"When do ya think Enterprise'll notice we're gone?" Trip questioned the two of them.

"Soon," Travis spoke up "We've been gone for at least three, four hours. They have to know that we wouldn't take this long."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"T'pol," Captain Archer turned to her at the science station "They're still there, on the planet?"

"Affirmative," T'pol answered "It shows that the shuttlepod landed safely next to the alien colony. It is quite obvious that they are still on the planet. Why do you ask Captain?"

"It's just," he paused before continuing "A simple mission like this shouldn't take that long. Now, we know that this species in particular is very hostile. They may have had a disagreement, they could have been taken hostage."

"It's illogical to worry Captain," T'pol replied coolly "The trading may just be taking longer than estimated. As you say, they are a hostile species and maybe can't settle on the right price."

"Yes," Archer contemplated this for a few moments "We'll give it another hour. If they aren't back by then, then we should worry."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The planet was incredibly dark now, the only reason that they could still see was because the fire was still going. Malcolm stirred and slowly opened his eyes. For a few moments he felt disorientated and not sure where he was, seeing trees all around him made him confused as he thought he was in his quarters on the Enterprise. He was wrong of course, as the four of them were still stuck down on the alien planet. Then he remembered the water, that sent chills up his spine. He'd been so helpless and afraid, he felt as if he had let the team down. What use was he to them if he was afraid of water? He slowly sat up and rubbed the leaves out of his hair, wondering why the Enterprise hadn't found them yet.

"Hey Malcolm," Trip spoke first, the three of them were at Malcolm's side in an instant "How're ya feelin'?"

"Okay I suppose, apart from a pain in my chest and a splitting headache," Malcolm replied "I don't really remember much."

Really, Malcolm felt like death. Apart from the splitting headache and the pain in his chest, he felt incredibly weak and dizzy, and felt that if he were to stand he would instantly fall. But, he didn't want his friends to worry about him too much, they should concentrate on getting back to Enterprise.

"What do you remember?" Hoshi asked him calmly.

"Well, I remember the...water," he shuddered, recalling the terror he had felt about not being able to breathe "I remember getting caught on something and not being able to get out," he shuddered again "That's it really."

"You haven't missed much," Travis laughed "We've just been sitting here for about an hour. Talking about food."

The mere mention of food made Malcolm's stomach rumble. He hadn't realised how hungry he was feeling until then.

"Has Enterprise contacted us?" Malcolm queried, crossing his legs.

"No, I'm afraid not," Hoshi told him "I'm sure they should come looking for us soon. We've been gone for some hours."

"I agree," Malcolm replied "And, everyone still has their phase pistols with them?"

"Yep," Trip produced his pistol out of his pocket, as did Hoshi and Travis "Why d'you ask?"

"Just in case," Malcolm said, making sure he still had his phase pistol "If Enterprise doesn't come soon, we may bump into the natives. Obviously, they aren't very pleased with us for some unknown reason, as they attempted to kill us. I just want us to be prepared, that's all."

"I see y're point," Trip agreed, pocketing his phase pistol.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Right, we've waited long enough," Archer told T'pol "Contact them and tell them to get back here."

T'pol tried contacting them, but she shook her head "I'm afraid I can't get through to them Captain."

"Try again," the Captain ordered.

T'pol tried, and shook her head again "The alien species is using some sort of jamming signal. I'm afraid I can't reach them."

"A jamming signal," Archer was confused "Why would they want to jam our communications? We were the ones who sent people down there to negotiate with them. Surely they won't want to jam us off?"

"It appears, they do Captain," T'pol replied "Although, I am not sure why."

"Right, that's it," Archer stood from the Captain's chair "If we can't get a signal through, obviously I'm going to have to investigate. T'pol, I want you to say here and act as Captain on the Enterprise while I'm gone. I'm going to take Shuttlepod Two down to the planet, see if I can figure out what's going on. I'll be bringing some security with me, just in case of course."

"Of course," T'pol raised one eyebrow slightly "I will see you when you get back. I am sure, everything will be in order Captain."

Archer nodded, and entered the lift to gather three security members.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Hoshi's hand flew to the back of her head, she inhaled sharply, and found that her head was still bleeding. She hoped it wouldn't get infected, who knows how lethal that would be.

"You okay Hoshi?" Trip asked her, concerned.

"Yeah," she wrinkled up her nose "Just my head, it's still bleeding."

"Here, let me have a look," Travis said, picking up the med kit and taking a closer look at the back of Hoshi's head "That'll need stitching. A cut like that needs help closing on its own. I'm sure Doctor Phlox will sort you out as soon as we get back to Enterprise."

Hoshi nodded, smiling.

A twig snapped. All four heads turned at exactly the same time, as if they all shared one body. There was rustling in the woods, and it wasn't just the wind.

"It appears we're going to have to use the phase pistols sooner than expected," Malcolm said, taking his phase pistol out from his pocket.

The others followed suit. Malcolm stood up and joined the others, but found himself veering. He was feeling incredibly weak and tired, but he had to help them. At one point, he almost fell over and Trip had to support him to keep him upright. Mal had one arm around Trip and one arm pointing a phase pistol in the direction of the noise they had just heard. The four of them were poised with their phase pistols, waiting.

Suddenly, they were greeted by a group of about fifteen aliens from the planet that they were on. Their skin was covered in scales, much like the Xindi Reptilian, but they had more of a look of the Suliban. The scales were grey with a metallic green sheen and this species did not look friendly. Also, they had thick long tails, something that could come in handy in fight situations.

"Is that a phase pistol in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?" Trip laughed cockily, directing this joke to the alien that seemed to be in charge.

Hoshi shot him a look like daggers "This is not a time to be making jokes Trip!"

"Just tryin' to lighten the mood," Trip's joking disposition suddenly changed to quite angry "You're the ones who shot at us! You've got some explainin' to do!"

And just like that, all fifteen aliens held up their phase pistols. Trip, Mal, Travis and Hoshi were forced to put their weapons on the ground and put their hands in the air. The four of the aliens came forward and grabbed the four crewmen, guns pointed directly onto their heads. A bag was pulled over their heads, and they were lead off through the forest.


	3. Capture

_Sorry for my long absence in posting this chapter, I've been very busy, what with getting GCSE results back and fussng over my new kitten :P  
Also, I have just realised there is already a StarTrek Enterprise episode called Fight or Flight, I wasn't aware of this (I don't remember the names of every single episode) so I will be changing the title of this story as soon as I think of an appropriate one :)  
Also, to my faithful reviewers, I couldn't thank you enough ! Keep them coming :D_

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The four of them were being lead through the forest, not aware of where they were going, or what grudges these aliens had against them. It was meant to be a simple negotiating mission, how wrong they were.

"Hoshi," Trip whispered quietly, but loud enough to get her attention "What are these aliens even called anyway, I don't know anything about them, other than how hostile they are."

"They're called the Si'yintrax, we've only just recently come into contact with them," Hoshi explained "They're incredibly territorial and hostile, as far as we knew they seemed perfectly happy trading with us. Obviously, we were wrong."

One of the Si'yintrax heard Hoshi whispering and hit her hard in the back, to make her be quiet. Hoshi's legs buckled and she almost fell over, but she kept her composure and stayed strong. She'd been brainwashed to conform by the Xindi, this couldn't be as bad as that. Could it?

"Can you talk to them, you know their language right?" Trip continued talking to Hoshi, unaware that one of the Si'yintrax had just struck her "You could try reasoning with them."

Trip was harshly pushed forward and collided with Travis, who then collided with one of the aliens and the three of them lay sprawled on the floor. There was an awful cracking sound, Travis had cracked his head hard off a rock and it was bleeding badly. He'd fallen out of consciousness, the blow to his head had completely knocked him out. Trip, Malcolm and Hoshi were unaware of exactly what had happened, as they had bags on their heads, but they were pretty sure something bad had happened.

"Travis?" Hoshi called.

No answer.

"Travis!" she called again, before a Si'yintrax grabbed her roughly by the arm and pulled her harshly away.

Trip and Malcolm pulled the bags off from their heads. They saw that he had been injured, the blood was oozing from the deep gash in his head. Trip scrabbled forwards and turned Travis over so that he was facing upwards, allowing Trip to see the horrible wound across his head.

"We need a medic," he turned to the Si'yintrax "We need to help him!"

Their leader stepped forward and grabbed Trip by the arm, pulling him upright with one swift movement and almost pulling his arm out of his socket. They'd already grabbed a weak but struggling Malcolm and secured the bag back over his head. Trip shot the leader a nasty look and balled his hands up into fists.

"Hoshi," Trip tried to keep a calm composure, but he was still gritting his teeth while staring into the eyes of the leader "Can you tell them that we need to get Travis to a doctor?"

Hoshi pulled the bag off her head and spoke in their complicated language. Her eyebrows were furrowed into a frown as she had to concentrate really hard to make sure that she got the words sounding exactly right, otherwise it would turn into a completely different word entirely. A Si'yintrax made a move towards her, its reptilian tongue hissing in and out of its mouth. Hoshi winced slightly. He grabbed the bag off the floor and shoved it back over her head. The leader did the same to Trip. Trip wasn't having this, one of his good friends was in danger and this alien species wasn't even going to lift a finger to help.

Trip turned swiftly and used one arm to get the Si'yintrax leader into a headlock and the other to pull the bag off his head. The leader grabbed Trip's arm and dug his claws in hard. Trip gasped in pain and released him. The leader grabbed his gun and pointed it straight to Trip's head. Two other Si'yintrax's raised their guns and pointed them to Malcolm ad Hoshi's heads. The Si'yintrax leader tilted his head slightly as if to say 'try me'. Trip cursed under his breath and the bag was again put over his head. The three of them were lead off through the forest, and away from the injured Travis.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Captain Archer climbed into Shuttlepod Two along with Ensign Sanchez and two Security Personnel, Smith and Lockley. Archer started up the engine of the shuttlepod and the doors leading out of Enterprise were opened. Archer manoeuvred the shuttlepod out of the doors, and into the stars. He was growing quite concerned, even though as T'Pol said, the negotiations could just be taking longer than they expected. He was going to end up looking like a fool, showing up on the planet all worried and everything would probably be running smoothly, knowing him. The shuttlepod shook as it entered the atmosphere of the planet. Everything was normal, that was until Shuttlepod Two was violently jerked aside by weapons fire coming from the planet. The three unsuspecting officers fell off their seats onto the floor, but Archer had gripped the control panel tight, ensuring that he wouldn't fall off his chair. He had to get this situation under control. Their comm. system was still working, so Archer worked as fast as he could to get a message to T'Pol.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Sub-Commander, we're getting a message," Ensign Fuller, Hoshi's stand in, spoke up from the station he was at "It's from Shuttlepod Two."

"Onscreen," T'Pol replied coolly.

Archer's face appeared onscreen, the screen was very crackly and fuzzy, but T'Pol could just about make him out.

"T'Pol," Archer seemed urgent "The Si'yintrax home world has begun to fire on us," Archer's head was jerked sideways as they were hit again "We're going to attempt to land. Be alert for attacks on Enterprise. I'm pretty sure now that Shuttlepod One was shot down too."

"But Captain, why would they want to fire on us if we are trading goods with them?" T'Pol asked Archer.

"I don't know T'Pol. We'll have to-" a huge crash sounded and the screen went completely blank, that hit must have knocked out their comm. systems.

"Tactical alert," T'Pol said instantly "Be prepared for attacks from the home world, they could send fleets of ships our way."

But T'Pol looked at the readouts on the weapons monitor. It read that no weapons had been fired in the vicinity...

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Another shot came their way, Archer managed to swerve this time and avoid it. He found it difficult to get the shuttlepod back into control again as one of its forward thrusters were on the brink.

"I'm going to try an emergency landing!" Archer had to shout over the noise of sparking equipment and twisting metal "Brace for impact!"

The others didn't have to be told twice as trees filled their view. Captain Archer did the best he could trying to avoid them but he clipped the side of an enormous tree and Shuttlepod Two went freefalling, spinning towards the earth. With a catastrophic cacophony of noise that sounded throughout the forest, the shuttlepod landed nose first on the ground. The four people inside the shuttlepod where thrown around like ragdolls. Archer went flying into a wall and for a while was seeing stars. After he'd steadied himself and managed to stagger to his feet he went to see if Sanchez, Smith and Lockley were okay. Smith and Sanchez got up from the wrecked floor, virtually unscathed. For Lockley, however, it was a different story. His arm was jammed under heavy bits of metal which had collapsed from the roof. Archer, Smith and Sanchez each grabbed a corner of the large metal panel and heaved with all their might to lift it up enough for Lockley to pull his arm away. Lockley snapped his arm away from the twisted metal and Smith, Sanchez and Archer dropped it back on the floor. Apart from the missing panel from the roof, the shuttlepod wasn't too badly damaged.

"Are you alright?" Archer asked Lockley, helping him stand.

"I think it's broken," he winced in pain "But I'll live."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Travis' eyes flicked open as he was suddenly aware of an excruciating pain in his head. He pushed himself up from the floor so that he was in a sitting position and scrutinized the area around him. There were no signs of Trip, Malcolm and Hoshi or any of the Si'yintrax. Travis' hands flew to his bleeding head as he very shakily got to his feet. The worlds was spinning around him, he could barely stand , his head hurt so much that he felt as if it might burst in any second.

"Travis?"

He was sure he heard somebody saying his name, positive, but there was nobody there. He turned, as quick as he could without making his head hurt even more than it already did. Travis felt the world going black before his eyes. But he was certain that, before he passed out, Captain Archer emerged from the trees and caught him before he fell...but that would be impossible, as he was still on Enterprise, wasn't he?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Malcolm woke with a start. Trip had violently shook him awake. He realised that they were on the back of some sort of wagon and a strange horse-like creature was pulling it along. The Si'yintrax that had took them from the forest were sitting up front, while Malcolm, Trip and Hoshi were in the back.

"Sorry," Malcolm rubbed the back of his head where it had been resting on the wooden wall "I didn't mean to fall asleep, especially not on duty."

"'S'alright," Trip replied "You were having a nightmare Malcolm. You okay?"

"Ummm," Malcolm went red for a fraction of a second, but then composed himself "Yes, I'm fine. Why shouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, facin' your fears an' all that," Trip suggested.

"I wouldn't necessarily call it facing," Malcolm interjected "I don't think I can even look at water without feeling nauseous anymore."

Trip laughed slightly, Hoshi shook her head smiling. Malcolm sat up properly and winced painfully, clutching a sharp pain in his ribs.

"You're not in as good a condition as ya let on, are ya Malcolm?" Trip and Hoshi looked at him, concerned.

"No I'm not," he admitted shamefully "You know that feeling when you have the flu and you feel as if your body will just break when you stand up, and whenever you do the world starts spinning and you have to sit down again?" Trip and Hoshi nodded "Well, imagine that, but ten times worse. Along with the headache and the fact that it hurts dreadfully whenever I take in a breath."

"I'm startin' to wish we'd brought Phlox along on this mission," Trip sighed "He'd have sorted you and Travis out in no time."

It was the first time anybody had mentioned Travis since the Si'yintrax pulled them away from him and forced them to leave him behind.

"Travis' going to be okay Trip," Hoshi looked up at Trip, pain in her eyes "Isn't he?"

"I'm positive he'll be fine," Trip told her "I'm sure the Captain'll come check it out. He's gotta know there's somethin' wrong by now. He'll find Travis an' get him to Phlox, I swear. I'm sure he'll find us too."

Suddenly, the wagon stopped with a jolt and the three of them were flung forwards. The back was opened and three evil looking Si'yintrax peered inside. The three of them were pulled out of the wagon and instantly had ropes tied around their wrists from the three Si'yintrax. There was a shabby looking falling apart building in front of them. It was humungous but looked derelict, it couldn't be though, as there was a steady number of Si'yintrax going in and out of the building. The three were harshly lead in, guns pointed at their backs. Malcolm was extremely wobbly but nobody could help him out as their hands were bound by rope. There was a Si'yintrax in front of them who opened the doors to the run down building and Trip, Malcolm ad Hoshi were forced inside. They travelled down a long dusty corridor until they got to some stairs which lead down into the basement. Once there the three Si'yintrax lead the three of them into the basement. The basement, turned out to be a long room full of holding cells. Every cell was empty apart from one, which housed an extremely glum looking Si'yintrax. Trip, Malcolm and Hoshi were thrown into the cell opposite the Si'yintrax and the three that lead them in locked the cell tight with its many padlocks. The cell was minute, barely big enough to fit the three of them in. There was no furniture either, it was completely bare, apart from a rather disgusting bowl of grey slimy sludge that must have passed off for food. As the three Si'yintrax began to leave, Trip leaned both arms through the bars, one hand holding the sludgy porridgey substance and found only one thing to say to them:

"I don' suppose ya serve lobster here, do ya?"


	4. Means of Communication

_So sorry for the long update! My computer got a very persistant virus over the past two months and both times I've had to wipe it, losing what I'd written of this chapter twice ):  
But it's here now for you to read and hopefully I'll now be updating it weekly :D.  
Enjoy, reviews are MUCH appreciated, I just want to know if you like this or not :P. Happy reading :)_

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Archer sat next to the broken down Shuttlepod, drinking some cool refreshing water from his canteen. Travis was lay out on the floor beside him, Archer had propped his head up on a bag as support and had supplied the best treatment that he knew to the gash in Travis' head. He feared that perhaps his skull had been fractured but that was beyond his expertise. For now he had only temporarily stopped the bleeding and applied gauze across the wound. It would have to do until they were able to get back onto the Enterprise and he would be able to get professional medical help from Dr. Phlox.

Archer's mind drifted to the attack on Shuttlepod Two. Finding Travis confirmed that the others had probably had a similar experience. Why did this alien species want to shoot down two friendly Shuttlepods who were going to negotiate a goods trade with them? What was their motive? Something had to be wrong for them to shoot down two Shuttlepods.

There was also another thing that was perplexing Archer, T'pol had told him that Shuttlepod One had landed safely on the planet, but that clearly wasn't the case. How did the scanners show T'pol that the Shuttlepod had landed unscathed? New technology perhaps? Whatever it was, Archer wanted to get to the bottom of it before anybody else got hurt.

Lockley was asleep, leaning against the broken Shuttlepod and cradling his broken arm. Archer couldn't blame him, it had been a tiresome and troubling day, even he was feeling sleep creeping up on him. But he couldn't sleep, he was too edgy. He wanted to know what this species, the Si'yintrax, were up to. Smith was on his back, underneath the Shuttlepod, peering at some broken cables and split wires. He had told Archer that he may be able to get the Shuttlepod's communications back online, but he couldn't give Archer an exact time. That would do, as long as they got in contact with the Enterprise before something else terrible happened.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Trip stretched and rubbed a painful crick in his neck. How long had they been sitting here, an hour? Two? Three? He couldn't tell. All he knew was that there was no way that they could get out of this cell, unless they blasted the walls or the bars open, and that seemed very unlikely in their present situation. The bars were incredibly sturdy, so a push from all three of them wouldn't make them budge.

"We have to come up with a cunning plan to get out of here that none of the Si'yintrax will expect," Malcolm said in a hushed tone to Hoshi and Trip.

"The problem is, we don't know what they do and don't expect," Hoshi began "For all we know, everyone who has been imprisoned in here has tried everything. Maybe they're covered for escape. Maybe we can't get out."

"Don' talk like that Hoshi," Trip cut in, a twinge of unhappiness in his expression "We'll get outta here, I promise."

"How can you be so sure?" Hoshi stopped him, her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth turned down into a frown "How can you even be sure that the Enterprise even knows about us being stuck in here? How can you be sure that anybody is going to find us? How can you be so sure that the Captain will find us, or find Travis for that matter?"

"Because I just know!" Trip's voice had risen up a notch, causing the Si'yintrax in the cell opposite them and the guards to stare, his jaw was clenched and his eyes were locked on to Hoshi's.

"How do you even know that Travis isn't dead by now!" Hoshi returned the same angry glare.

"Nothing is going to be solved by arguing amongst ourselves!" Malcolm spoke up, making the Trip and Hoshi break eye contact and look over towards him "We should worry about one thing at a time, that will be the only thing that will keep us sane on this God awful planet. First, we have to figure out a way to get out of this cell, then we can worry about getting off this planet and finding Travis."

There were a few moments of silence after Malcolm had finished speaking where Hoshi and Trip sat there, digesting what he had just said. After a minute or two of silence, Hoshi spoke up.

"I'm sorry Trip," she said in a small voice "I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm just stressed and worried. Can you forgive me?"

"Of course I'll forgive ya, it's hard to stay mad at you for long," Trip's expression softened into a smile "Now let's find a way to bust outta here once and for all!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The sound of the Comm. system beeping sounded throughout Engineering which was unusually quiet at that moment.

"T'pol to Kelby," T'pol's impassive voice came through the system.

Engineer Kelby, who had taken over from Trip as he was on an away mission, strode over from his spot in Engineering towards the Comm. system on the wall.

"This is Kelby," Kelby replied "What's the problem?"

"Your assistance is required on the bridge," she told him in her usual emotionless manner.

"I'm coming right up," Kelby replied, and made his way towards the bridge.

When there, he discovered that everything was in normal working order and wasn't too sure why T'pol had called him up there. He opened his mouth and was about to speak when T'pol cut in before him.

"I require you to assist me in discontinuing the jamming signal set on our communication devices and also to repair the signal on the scanner, as it indicates that both Shuttlepods One and Two arrived safely on the planet, when we know they didn't. The planet must be putting the scanners in disarray."

"Sure thing sub-Commander. I'll get right onto that. Which would you like me to fix first?" Kelby questioned.

"Communications, that way we will be able to get in contact with the Captain and discover what situation he's in," T'pol replied.

Kelby nodded, stepped up to the communications station and got to work.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Captain Archer's head shot upwards. He'd fallen asleep while Smith was trying to fix the Shuttlepod's communication systems. He hoped he hadn't been asleep for long, he was the Captain and he had to look out for his crew on missions, not fall asleep on the job. Smith was still underneath the Shuttlepod, so thankfully, he probably never noticed that Archer had dozed off. Lockley had woken up, but was still holding his broken arm with a pained expression on his face. Travis and Lockley needed to get to Doctor Phlox, and fast.

Archer heard a rustling noise next to him and involuntarily his hand went for his phaser, as did Lockley with his good arm. Archer was surprised to see, that when he'd turned around, Travis had opened his eyes and was awkwardly trying to sit up. Archer knelt down next to him and put a hand on his chest, gently pressing him down.

"Don't try to move Travis," Archer began "You must have taken a nasty fall."

"A nasty push alright," Travis replied quickly, then reeled as a coughing fit came over him.

It felt like thousands of needles were continuously piercing his lungs, Travis had never felt pain quite like it. He clutched his chest as blood came spluttering out of his mouth. Archer had a comforting hand on his back and when Travis had finished coughing, Archer handed him his canteen of water.

"Thank you Captain," Travis croaked, wiping some blood of his lip then taking a swig from the canteen, the water feeling ice cold against his burning throat.

Travis had a headache which he found hard to ignore, probably a side effect of his head getting cracked on a rock, he really wasn't feeling too good, but had some questions for the Captain.

"What are you doing here anyway Captain?" Travis wheezed "I mean, it was only Trip, Malcolm, Hoshi and I who went out to the planet and we couldn't even get a distress signal out when we were fired upon. How did you know we were in trouble?"

"Instinct," Archer shrugged "Just a gut feeling, I thought you had taken too long, so I came down to investigate. Seems like we had the same fate," Archer indicated towards the crashed Shuttlepod.

"At least yours didn't fall into the sea," Travis remarked, taking another swig from the canteen.

"The sea?" Archer raised an eyebrow "It's not exactly going to be a walk in the park getting that Shuttlepod out of there. Was everyone okay, before the accident of course."

"Yeah, everyone was fine. Well, except Malcolm almost drowned and stopped breathing for a few seconds. I think he needs to see a doctor, he said he was having pains in his chest and when he stood he just couldn't seem to get his sea legs. Plus, he doesn't like water."

"Yes, I can imagine. How did you get pushed anyway, did you bump into the natives?"

Travis nodded, an anxious look on his face, thinking about his friends being lead through a forest with bags over their heads, he prayed for their safety.

"They found us, put bags over our heads and lead us through the forest, phase pistols pointed at our heads at all times. Trip got into a little scuffle with them, you know how he can be sometimes, which lead to me being pushed and hitting my head," Travis told the Captain.

"Did you know where they were taking you?" Archer questioned.

"Haven't a clue Captain," Travis sighed, shaking his head.

"Well, as soon as we get communications back online I'm sure we'll figure out a way to get you and Lockley back, even if it means using the transporter," Archer promised.

Travis shuddered at the thought of the transporter notion.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"I spy with my li'l eye somethin' beginnin' with...B!" Trip boomed, an excited smile on his face as he regressed back to his childhood games.

"Bars," Malcolm replied in a bored manner, resting his head against the wall.

"Dammit Malcolm! How'd ya know?" Trip remarked, a look of astonishment on his face.

"A lucky guess," Malcolm replied, closing his eyes.

"Yeah, it's not like you've said that one five times already," Hoshi interjected, rubbing her temples as a headache had begun to take hold.

"Spoilsport," Trip grumbled, bringing his knees up underneath his chin "It's not like there's anythin' else to spy in here."

Upon sitting up, Malcolm noticed the Si'yintrax in the cell opposite them was watching the three of them intently.

"Do you think he understands what we're talking about?" Malcolm asked, leaning forward slightly "Well, I assume it's male. They all look the same to me."

"I'm pretty sure they don't Malcolm," Hoshi told him "He'd have to have a translator, and I don't think they allow them in prison cells."

Trip shuffled towards the bars of the cell and peered down the corridor the best that he could without the bars getting in the way. He spotted two Si'yintrax standing by the door at the end of the corridor, both had a phase pistol in their pockets. He didn't know how many were in the rest of the building, but from here, to Trip it looked pretty easy. They'd only have to grab the phasers from the guards and make them unlock the gates or they'd shoot. However, there could be more guards who could come in if they saw the first two guards' phase pistols being stolen. Trip had thought of this already, he'd been mulling it over in his head for at least a good hour now and he had his escape plan all made up in his head. He turned to Malcolm and Hoshi, back leaning against the bars and gave them one of his wicked grins.

"I've got a plan," he smiled, gesturing towards the two guards at the end of the corridor "We're bustin' outta here."


	5. A Not so Clever Idea

_Finally, I have broken through the crippling writers block that I've been having for this story and have now written another chapter! Gosh, it's been months, I'm so hopeless XD Anyway, please review and tell me what you think :)_

_Edit: I've resubmitted the chapter because I've just realised that I'd forgotten all about Ensign Sanchez! I've written him back in now though, so all is well :)_

* * *

Malcolm, Trip and Hoshi were all on their knees, peering down the corridor to get a better look at the prison guards with phase pistols. The three of them sat in complete silence, eyeing up the situation at hand.

"Right, here's the plan," Trip began in a hushed tone as the two of them turned towards him "I'm gonna cause a commotion, an' get the guards to come on down here. One of you two are gonna grab their pistols, whoever's closest, then get into the back of the cell. This'll make the guards wanna come in and get the pistols back-"

"What if they get reinforcements to help them?" Hoshi asked quizzically "This isn't going to be all that easy."

"Hoshi, when are any of Trip's plans 'all that easy'?" Malcolm interjected, one eyebrow raised.

"Guys, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Either way they're gonna wanna come in an' get their pistols back-"

"But what if the reinforcements just stun us, come in and grab the phase pistols?" Malcolm looked at Trip dead in the eye.

"D'ya guys have a better idea, 'cause I'm all ears?" Trip questioned, when none of them replied, he continued "One a'you will have a phaser. Wait for the doors to open and just stun them. You guys ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be with your brief plan explanation," Malcolm grabbed the bars with both hands and looked down the corridor towards the two Si'yintrax guards.

Trip looked towards Hoshi, who nodded forcefully.

"That settles it then. Trip rubbed his hands together and looked in the guards' direction "Hey, lizard breath!"

At the loudness of the remark, the guards looked down towards their cell, even though they had no idea what Trip said as they didn't know his language.

"Yeah, I'm talkin' to ya!" Trip shook the bars as hard as he could "Come down here if ya think ya can handle me!"

The guards turned around, just staring Trip out which angered him more as he needed the guards to come down for his plan to work. The guards began to turn but Trip whistled as loud as he could to get them to look his way again.

"C'mon are ya game or not! Come down here an' face me!" Trip shook the bars again, harder this time to try and get the two Si'yintrax to come down the corridor towards them.

Sure enough they did. Trip breathed a heavy sigh of relief but rattled the bars again to ensure they continued on track.

The guards stopped in front of the cell, one grabbed Trip's arm and pulled him forwards, pulling his arm through the bars and trapping his head and shoulder painfully against the bars. The Si'yintrax stooped and looked Trip dead in the eyes.

"Now!" Trip yelled, his face painfully pressing into the hard metal.

Malcolm reached through the bars in an instant and grabbed the phase pistol out of the belt of the Si'yintrax that was holding Trip. With one flick Malcolm stunned the second Si'yintrax who fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. The other Si'yintrax dropped Trip who fell down backwards. In all of the confusion, instead of calling for back up, the phaserless Si'yintrax opened the door to their cell. When it had been successfully opened, Malcolm raised his arm and stunned the guard with his phaser. They were out!

Hoshi ran forward and pulled the cell door open fully. Trip ran past her and grabbed the phase pistol from the first stunned Si'yintrax. He grabbed Hoshi by the wrist and sprinted towards the door, Malcolm followed suit, his phase pistol raised defensively. The three of them stopped short before the door out, they had no idea what to expect once they got out there. Trip stuck his head out as far as he would dare around the front door to check out their situation. There was a small clearing in front of the door and around the building but beyond that was an extremely dense forest, filled with trees, bushes and God knows what manner of strange creature would be lurking in those forests. From what Trip could see, there were no Si'yintrax there, but it was more than likely that they were lurking to snipe anyone who escaped.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Trip smiled, and ran off out of the building, Hoshi and Malcolm at his tail.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"There!" Kelby beamed "I've managed to bypass their jamming signal enough without them noticing. However, that only means that we can open a channel only to Captain Archer and that may only last a few minutes."

"A few minutes is all I will need. Thank you Kelby," T'pol sat back in the chair "Open a channel to the Captain."

"No can do Captain," Ensign Fuller replied "The communication system on Shuttlepod Two must be damaged. I can't get a hold of him."

Kelby cursed under his breath and T'pol raised an eyebrow.

"Kelby, I want you to start working on getting through the Si'yintrax's jamming signal fully and contacting whatever form of government they have down there. We need to see if we can acquire some answers from them."

"Aye aye ma'am," Kelby saluted her and turned to get back to work on the jamming signal, rolling his eyes as he did so. This was going to be a long day.

"Kelby," T'pol spoke.

Kelby turned in annoyance, probably more dramatic than he intended as T'pol once again raised an eyebrow.

"Before you start working on the jamming signal I would like you to check if there is anything wrong with the weapons readouts. When I read them before it said that there were no weapons fired in the vicinity, even when the Captain was being shot at."

Kelby got to work on the weapons readouts. A few buttons here, a quizzical look there. After a few minutes Kelby looked up from the control monitor and shook his head, a slightly confused look on his face.

"There's nothing wrong with it Sub-Commander," Kelby shrugged "Are you sure you didn't just misread it?"

"Positive," T'pol looked away from Kelby, who could've sworn her brow furrowed slightly "Continue with the jamming signal."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Captain, I've done it," Smith stood up from his position underneath the Shuttlepod "Comm. systems are back online but I'm not sure for how long."

Captain Archer leaped to his feet and sent a signal up to the Enterprise which was still orbiting above the planet. The message was answered almost instantly and Archer was met with T'pol's face on the small communications system of the Shuttlepod.

"Captain, you are well?" T'Pol said, more of a question than a statement.

"Yes, thank you T'pol," Archer replied, banging on the screen to get the picture back after it had started to go fuzzy "I thought for sure we were going to be stranded down here, but thankfully Smith was able to get the Comm. systems back online."

"Indeed," said T'pol "The planet is jamming the Comm. signals on the Enterprise also. We may only be able to talk for a few minutes because of this, as the jamming signal may indeed be placed back on after the species on the planet realises we have disabled it."

"Right, okay, well let's get talking about the most important things first before we lose the Comm. systems again," Archer said, feeling slightly exasperated "We've got Travis, he's been hurt badly. He's taken a blow to the head off a run in with the Si'yintrax, so he needs to see Doctor Phlox. Lockley's also been hurt, his arm got broken after our collision in the Shuttlepod, so he needs to see Phlox to as we're not equipped with adequate medical supplies to treat their conditions down here. Smith and I are fine apart from a few cuts and bruises, so we could stay down here and find Trip, Reed and Sato. They've been taken to an unknown location by the Si'yintrax Travis tells me."

"How are you going to find them with ease Captain?" T'pol questioned him "The planet is by no means small."

"Yeah, I know," Archer rubbed the back of his neck "I'm going to have to think of a way to pinpoint where they are, and fast. For all we know, the Si'yintrax could have killed them by now. And we have to get Travis and Lockley back to the Enterprise. Do you think you could use the transporter to get them back on the enterprise?"

"Negative. It will be too unstable," at this news Archer's face fell "There will more than likely be a jamming signal on the transporter and even if Kelby manages to disable the jamming signal, it may only be for a short amount of time. The jamming signal could get put back on the transporter while Mayweather and Lockley are being transported, which would lead to their lives being instantly terminated."

"Did I just hear the words 'Mayweather', 'Lockley' and 'instantly terminated' in the same sentence?" came Travis' voice from a spot not that far away, leaning against a tree "If using the transporter means risking Lockley's life as well as mine, I don't think that's such a good idea Captain."

Archer looked over to where Travis and Lockley were sitting. Lockley had dozed off again, leaning against a sturdy boulder lodged into the ground, still cradling a badly broken arm. Travis was conscious but didn't look so good. He needed a doctor, and fast.

"You're right Travis. I think we should think of another way to get you two back to the Enterprise," Archer turned back to the communication screen "The Shuttlepod isn't that badly damaged. Smith, Sanchez and I may be able to get it fixed and bring Travis and Lockley up to the Enterprise. Of course, it won't be as easy as it sounds if we're going to get fired upon again. Smith, Sanchez and I will also need to get back down to the planet safely with more reinforcements if we want to find Reed, Sato and Trip. I'm pretty sure they don't have any means to get back to the Enterprise by themselves."

"Understood," T'pol replied "Kelby is trying to get through the jamming fully so we are able to communicate to the planet and not just to you. We must contact whatever form of government is down there on the planet as we need to find out exactly what is happening in order to get Tucker, Sato and Reed back safely and to find out why the Shuttlepods were attacked in the first place."

"Agreed. You work on that and we'll work on getting the Shuttlepod up and running again. I think it's be best to turn of our Comm. systems to each other so they're less likely to be traced and only communicate each other if the subject is something of dire importance."

"Good luck Captain," T'pol said, in her usual demeanour which didn't really give Archer a boost of confidence.

"You too sub-Commander," Archer smiled before severing their communications.

Smith, on hearing the conversation between Archer and T'pol, jumped into action and tried to find tools to fix the Shuttlepod with.

"We haven't got a lot of things to go by Captain," Smith told him "But I'm sure if we work fast we can get the Shuttlepod up and running in no time."

"Smith, I think perhaps you should get some rest before you start working on this," Archer told him "You were working on the Comm. systems for a long while, and I don't want you being tired when we have to launch our rescue mission."

"What about you Captain?" Smith replied "Don't you need to rest to?"

"I already slept for a while, while you were fixing the Comm. systems. Now, you get some rest and I'll wake you in a couple of hours."

"Captain-"

"That is an order Smith, you too Sanchez."

Smith opened his mouth to protest, then realised it would be out of order to argue back with the ship's Captain. As kind as Archer was being, he could lose his job over it. So, without another word, he skulked off to find a comfortable rock or tree he could lean against to get some shut eye while the Captain worked on fixing up the Shuttlepod to working order.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

After running for what seemed like forever, but was indeed only for about three minutes, Malcolm, Trip and Hoshi were being fired upon by a hoard of Si'yintrax guards. The three of them fired back, naturally, stunning a couple of guards before some dived back behind trees for cover. Running and shooting at the same time through a forest was not easy, and so Trip, Malcolm and Hoshi found themselves stumbling a lot, and occasionally falling flat on their faces. After they thought they had shaken off the group of guards, the three of them let their guards down. Which was a mistake.

Five guards seemed to step out, out of nowhere and began firing upon them. Through a series of tactical manoeuvres, which Malcolm seemed to be the best at even in his injured state, they got through the worst of it. However, with only two guards left to stun, Trip was shot with a phase pistol on the right shoulder. He dropped like a stone and Hoshi screamed in terror. Malcolm and Hoshi had no idea whether he was alive or dead and the panic was written all over both of their faces. Malcolm was by Trip's side first and put a shaking palm to his friends neck. There was a pulse. He had only been stunned. Malcolm let out a sigh of relief and nodded in Hoshi's direction, letting her know that he wasn't dead. The tears that were threatening to spill over in Hoshi's eyes disappeared, and she became more determined to get through the forest without any more injuries. She stunned the remaining guards in front of her and went back to where Malcolm was attempting to pull Trip along, one arm around his neck ad his feet dragging along behind him.

However, the victory of getting past those guards was short lived. As Hoshi got where the two of them were and was about to support Trip's other arm, two stray guards popped out from behind a tree and shot Malcolm in the back with a phase pistol. Because Malcolm had fell to the ground, Hoshi couldn't support all of Trip's weight by herself and so she dropped him. Before firing back at the guards, Hoshi put her palm to Malcolm's neck to check if he was alive or not. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she prepared for the worst. However, Malcolm too was only stunned and Hoshi could rest easy. She paused for a moment before returning fre at the two Si'yintrax guards. Why on earth were they only being stunned? Surely if they thought the three of them were intruders to the planet they would have shot to kill, wouldn't they?

Hoshi dismissed this thought to get on with the job at hand and turned to shoot at the guards. Unfortunately it was too late and they were already by where Trip was lying. In her panic, she had left her back to Trip while she checked on Malcolm and one of the guards was already dragging him along back in the direction where they came. Hoshi screamed in anger and shot at the empty handed guard, stunning him and sending him crashing down to the forest floor. She shot aimlessly in anger at the other guard who had Trip, but missed every shot as he had gone into a very dense patch of trees. Just as she was about to run after him, she hesitated. She could not leave Malcolm's side. More guards could come while she was gone and could take him. The two of them, when Malcolm regained consciousness, would be better equipped to getting Trip back. Two heads were better than one.

So, frustrated, Hoshi dragged Malcolm over to a spot surrounded by a lot of tall trees and some huge boulders to hide behind. She propped Malcolm up by one of the boulders and sat close by, phaser at the ready, reacting to every small noise in the forest.

Trip had been taken, Malcolm was unconscious, Hoshi was lost. Trust Trip and his crazy plans.


	6. The Truth

_Wow, I sincerely apologise. I cannot believe it's been almost a year since I last updated this. I don't even know why I abandoned it, like I know the basic gist of the story, it's not like I had no idea where it was going! Anyway, if there are still people interested in this story, I hope you enjoy this chapter :)_

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Trip was harshly jolted awake when a bucket of ice cold water was thrown over his head. Coughing and spluttering, Trip realised that he was tied up. He was standing, his arms held above him tied to the ceiling by strong chains. His feet were bound too. After his vision returned he looked up to see who had thrown the water at him and came face to face with a Si'yintrax.

"Ah shoulda known," Trip spat, keeping his blue eyes fixed on the alien's reptilian ones.

"Now now Commander Tucker, keep your tongue behind your teeth," the Si'yintrax purred.

"You're speakin' English!" Trip cried in astonishment.

"Quite the contrary, you're speaking Si'yintrax," the alien corrected him.

"Excuse me?"

"Your species is so primitive," the Si'yintrax replied, pacing up and down in front of Trip, his scaled tail swishing back and forth with each step "You have barely stepped foot out of your primordial soup and are gallivanting through the stars like clumsy apes. Our technology is far more advanced than your own. This entire building is reinforced with a universal translator. Any alien that steps foot in here is able to understand our language and we theirs. It sounds as if we are all speaking the same language, but that is not the case. Is that too much for your mind to comprehend?"

Trip snorted rather forcefully, the alien wringed his hands and looked on him with disgust.

"Where are ya holdin' me?" Trip asked.

"You must be more dim-witted than I thought to think that I would part that information to _you_."

"Well if you're not gonna tell me where I am, how about if ya tell me who you are? That's a start, ain't it? Or am ah to _primitive_ to understand?"

The Si'yintrax fixed him with a cold glare "I am General Kahg and it is my duty to hold you here until the price has been met."

"Price? What price?" Trip's eyebrows knotted together "We came here on a friendly premise, we were givin' your planet goods that you didn't have. Why all the hostility?"

"The trade was just a set up from the start," Kahg said rather smugly "We needed to lure a primitive species, such as yourself down to our planet so that we could let our intentions be known."

"Yer intention bein'?"

"Why Commander Tucker, haven't you figured it out? We needed the higher up members of your ship to come down to our planet. Naturally when we told your ship we wanted to trade, you sent down a Chief Engineer, a Tactical Officer, a Communications expert and a talented flyer. These traits being valuable to your species, we set about trying to capture you. We needed a high ranking person to trade for something this planet is lacking. We wanted to trade at least one high ranking human specimen for the lower down members on your ship. We figured that as a Chief Engineer your skills are needed by your ship, much more than the lower ranking officers. Every planet needs their slaves, wouldn't you agree?"

"You slimy bastard!"

With that remark Trip earned a backhanded slap across the face. Because the scales of the Si'yintrax were so rough, deep grooves were cut into the flesh of his cheek and blood dripped down and off his chin.

"Where're ma friends," Trip growled "You better tell me or ah swear-"

"After that escape stunt of yours we were regretfully unable to locate them," Kahg replied "However, they will be found soon. Perhaps we will use them to trade for even more of your people….or perhaps we should kill them to show an example of what will happen to your race if you do not comply."

"If ya so much as touch one single hair on their heads ah will hunt you down."

"I do not take threats lightly Commander Tucker," Kahg's eyes narrowed "Guards!"

Two Si'yintrax guards entered the room, dressed in some sort of chainmail and brandishing blunt spears. Trip could see phase pistols hanging from their garments.

"Rough him up a little. Make him plead for mercy."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Malcolm groaned and stirred from somewhere beside Hoshi. She was at him in an instant.

"Are you alright?" she asked, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Yes, I'm fine thank you," Malcolm replied, rubbing his eyes "Just a few cuts, bruises and sore spots, nothing to be worried about."

He scanned the surrounding area, they were surrounded by nothing but trees and vegetation. How on earth were the crew of Enterprise supposed to find them in such an obscure area? All of a sudden a question rose to the forefront of Malcolm's mind.

"Where's Trip?"

Hoshi sighed "They took him. After you got shot I left him for a second to check if you ….if you were still alive. I didn't think it would be enough time for the guards to come in and take him, but clearly they did."

"It's not your fault Hoshi. I shouldn't have allowed myself to become such a target."

"Don't Malcolm," Hoshi replied "It was nobody's fault, especially not yours. There were just too many Si'yintrax for us to overcome."

"I wonder where they've taken him," Malcolm pondered.

"Well, we shouldn't really dwell on that. We can't launch a rescue mission with just the two of us, it wouldn't be wise. We need to somehow get back to the Enterprise and tell them what's going on. They know we're missing, so I'm pretty sure they'd be looking for us. We've just got to look for them and hopefully meet them in the middle."

"I agree. I just hope that they have Travis, and we find Trip soon."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jonathan Archer leaned back and wiped the sweat from his brow. It was tiring work, fixing the Shuttlepod. He Smith and Sanchez had been working on it tirelessly for hours. Lockley tried to lend a hand, but was more of a hindrance than a help, and Travis was unconscious most of the time. Archer was worried about him, he did need to be professionally seen to by Doctor Phlox, but Archer doubted if he would be able to hang in for that long. There was no telling when the Shuttlepod would be fixed and Travis had been badly hurt.

Archer shook his head, as if trying to disperse the bad thoughts that were fogging up his brain. He had to think positively. He had to believe that the Shuttlepod would be fixed in no time, that Travis and Lockley could be seen right away by Doctor Phlox and make a full recovery. And hope that they'd find Trip, Hoshi and Malcolm alive and well somewhere on the planet. The crew of the Starship Enterprise had had their fair deal of bad luck, especially with the Xindi. Perhaps something would turn out on top for once.

Suddenly, much to Archer's sheer disbelief, the Shuttlepod began to make whirring noises, as if the engine was coming back to life. Archer dived inside and sat in the pilot's seat, looking at the readouts on the screens in front of him. He almost whooped with delight, but kept his composure. Diving back out of the Shuttlepod he addressed his crew.

"Engine's are back online," he smiled "We just need to patch up that hole in the roof and we're good to go!"

"I'm just putting the last panel in now Captain," Sanchez remarked from atop the Shuttlepod.

Archer opened a channel to the Enterprise, hoping the natives on the planet hadn't noticed their communication the other night and had reinforced the jamming signal. Thankfully they hadn't and Archer was greeted with T'Pol's face on the screen in the Shuttlepod.

"Captain, do you have further news regarding the repairs to the Shuttlepod?"

"Yes thankfully I do. It's back in working order, it was as much as we could do with the limited resources, and I recommend the Shuttlepod gets proper repairs when we're back on board the Enterprise," Archer explained "We're going to fly to the Enterprise as soon as possible, and we've just gotta hope that we don't get blasted out of the sky again."

"Understood. I will protect the Shuttlepod to the best of my ability."

And with that T'Pol's face faded from view. Archer stepped out of the Shuttlepod.

"It's going to be a tight squeeze in there but we'll be back onboard the Enterprise soon enough," he promised "Smith, help me get Mayweather into the Shuttlepod."

After all five of them were in the Shuttlepod, Archer flicked a few switches here and there and soon enough they took to the stars. That's when the trouble started. Almost immediately after they had broke through the canopy of the forest the firing on the Shuttlepod began. Archer swerved this way and that, trying to avoid the shots. He once more opened up a communication with the Enterprise.

"T'Pol, we're being fired at left right and centre, a little help would be much appreciated!"

"I apologise Captain, but we are getting no weapons fire readouts from the planet below. I am unable to see anything in your vicinity, all I can see on the sensors is Shuttlepod Two."

"This is just what we need," Archer muttered, narrowly avoiding another shot.

"I do not want to risk firing on an unseen opponent, as it could put your lives and the lives of the aliens on the planet below at risk."

Suddenly the Shuttlepod was jerked violently to one side. They'd been hit. This was it. Archer tried successfully to regain control of the Shuttlepod. Thrusters were failing, if they didn't get aboard the Enterprise soon, Archer wasn't sure if they would be blasted into smithereens or once again end up on the alien planet. Archer had to protect his crew, and he wasn't going down that easily.

The bay doors of the Enterprise were in sight and Archer flew the Shuttlepod as fast as he could towards them. He didn't care if they ended up crashing through the doors instead of landing safely, at least they would be on board. Another shot jolted the Shuttlepod. Alert sirens began sounding throughout the Shuttlepod. Thrusters were critical. In about ten seconds they would stop working. Archer concentrated hard, and focused on those bay doors. Just a few more seconds and they would be through.

As their luck would have it, the next shot hit the back of the Shuttlepod and cut their thrusters dead. However, their luck turned as the force of the shot being fired upon them was enough to shoot the Shuttlepod through the bay doors and into the Enterprise. The bay doors were closed immediately and the Shuttlepod collided with the back wall. It landed with a thundering crash on the ground. Thankfully, no more bones were broken and everyone just got a few additional cuts and bruises. Archer breathed a heavy sigh of relief, they were lucky to get out of that one alive.

A few Ensigns were at the scene on double quick time, along withT'Pol and Doctor Phlox with a stretcher. Travis was loaded onto the stretcher.

"Captan, Sanchez and Smith, I suggest you stop by sick bay sometime in the day so I can check out your bumps and bruises," Doctor Phlox informed them "I know they don't look serious, but it never hurt to be too careful!"

Travis was quickly taken to the infirmary, Lockley following behind.

"Captain, it is good to see you properly," T'Pol said, although the unfeeling look gracing her face wasn't really loading him with confidence.

"Likewise," Archer managed a smile "T'Pol we need to find out what's going on with that planet. We were under the impression that they wanted to trade with us, and now I'm not so certain that that was fully their intention."

"I agree," T'Pol told him as they made their way to the Bridge, leaving the qualified Ensigns to deal with the Shuttlepod "Captain, we must get to the bottom of the attacks. The planet has been jamming our transmissions and has somehow been able to shield the sensors against weapons fire. I have detected no weapons fire on or around the planet. Not when you left or when Sato, Reed, Tucker and Mayweather departed."

"Yeah, that's another thing. Mayweather told me that their Shuttlepod had crash landed into an ocean of some sort and they had to swim up to dry land to get out. Our readings told us that we had landed on the planet safely and were about to commence trading. We know now that that was not the case. Something is going on down there T'Pol, and we have to get to the bottom of it."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Trip spat blood from his mouth and ran his tongue across his now red teeth. He was pretty sure at least two of his ribs were cracked and his left eye had almost swollen shut. Where was the Captain when you needed him? Trip didn't really like to think that he needed recuing, he always liked to think that he could get out of whatever situation he had landed himself in. But he was chained up and had taken a severe beating.

The guards left the room and Kahg came back in, eying Trip evilly. Trip smiled cockily back, he wasn't going to let any of this break him, he was stronger than that.

"My my Commander Tucker what excellent resolve," Kahg said, clapping with sheer sarcasm "I shall have to punish you more severely in future."

Trip spat yet more blood but this time he spat it at Kahg. He looked at Trip with utter distaste, then swiftly turned away.

"I wonder what you'll have to say if I summon your Captain, hm? If I bartered for some nice slaves for your life."

"Don't even bother, because he's just gonna say no."

At that instant, a panel in the floor slid away in front of Kahg and out from it sprang a rather large screen. It seemed to levitate in mid-air after it had come out of the floor. Trip had never seen this kind of technology before. Still, he tried not to look awestruck and looked at Kahg with utter resentment.

"Guards, lift the communications jamming signal! I wish to speak with the ship's Captain."


End file.
